


Suddenly Everything Has Changed

by speccygeekgrrl



Series: lovers from the moon [4]
Category: Mystery Science Theater 3000, Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: (it's her coping mechanism), Developing Relationship, Flirting, Jonah is the moral compass here, Marriage Proposal, Masochism, Max worries a lot, Multi, Relationship Negotiation, Sadism, Unplanned Pregnancy, all those things Kinga didn't want to say out loud get said, but Jonah's good at reassurances, but even his needle is swinging a bit in this situation, cause she definitely didn't forget about it, do you wanna start a coup? it doesn't have to be a coup but it's probably gonna be, guess who's gonna die? (hint: a lot of people), here have some more random backstory conversations, hey remember that destiny Kinga kept going on about, let. Kinga. fuck. shit. up., or more like re-negotiation, starting with one thing she never expected to have to say
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-01
Updated: 2017-11-14
Packaged: 2019-01-07 11:52:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12232293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/speccygeekgrrl/pseuds/speccygeekgrrl
Summary: Kinga said that she wanted global dominion and a family of her own, in that order. She didn't realize she was giving herself a deadline when she said it, though. But once Kinga Forrester makes her mind up about something, god help anyone who tries to sway her from it. (Max and Jonah are too smart to try to sway her. Or too stunned. One of those.)





	1. Creation and Destruction

The charade was beginning to play thin on the Satellite of Love. The bots were suspicious of Jonah’s increasingly frequent visits to Moon 13, and Jonah couldn't keep lying indefinitely. At least when the tube came to snatch him without warning, he didn't have to lie about it. Usually the unannounced grabbings came when Kinga was feeling amorous, but from the look on her face today that wasn't why she'd brought him down. Next to her, Max looked about as bemused as Jonah felt.

"What's up?" Jonah asked, not sure what was going on. Kinga chewed on her lip for a moment and then sighed heavily.

"I have... news," she said, looking supremely uncomfortable.

"Good news or bad news?" Jonah asked, and Kinga looked from Jonah to Max and back again a couple of times before she sighed again.

"I don't know what kind of news it is." Jonah and Max shared a concerned glance, and Max took Kinga's hands.

"What is it?"

"I know why I've been feeling so weird lately." She bit her lip and closed her eyes and said, very quietly, "I'm pregnant." Max gasped. Jonah's jaw dropped soundlessly, and he wrapped his arms around her.

"That's... great? Is that great?" he managed after a moment.

"That's not really great," Max said. "Because that means her IUD failed."

"Oh," Jonah said. "Well, shit. Isn't that like a one in a million sort of thing?"

"She's always been exceptional," Max said dryly.

"It's not really great for more than that reason," Kinga said. "Because as far as I can figure it, I'm about four months along."

"That's not too late to do something about it," Max said. "If you wanted to."

"I don't think I want to," she said, and Max arched his brows.

"You've said you don't want kids before..."

"I didn't want kids _now_ ," she said. "I wanted to focus on my career. But... I don't know." She paused, looking up at Jonah, then pulling Max closer into her own arms until the three of them were embraced. "I didn't expect this now, but... if it's a healthy pregnancy... I think I want to continue it," she said. "That’s a big if. And given the timing, I can't be sure whose baby it is."

"Does it matter?" Jonah asked. "I mean, it matters, but... it doesn't really matter until it's born. If your IUD failed then it's a complicated pregnancy... you need to see a doctor sooner than later. That’s way more important than parentage."

"I feel like if it was going wrong, something would have felt wrong by now," she said. "But I could be way off-base about that. They were pretty explicit when I got it put in that getting pregnant with it could be catastrophic. But I won't know until I see a professional, all I know is biochemistry, not obstetrics." She dropped her head to Max's shoulder with a sigh. "How do you feel about it?"

"Mostly worried," Max said. "Concerned about your health. Tentatively happy? But mostly worried."

"Kind of stunned," Jonah said. "I'll be honest, I haven’t spent much time considering fatherhood as a life path. Which is _not_ to say I want to bail now." 

“You can still bail. I’m evil, but I’m not evil enough to try and trap you with a baby,” Kinga said. “You’ve always said you’d want out eventually. And I’m not crazy enough to do something this dangerous on purpose.”

“I believe you.” He shrugged and hugged her a little tighter. "This is going to change everything, you know."

"I just figured it out for sure less than an hour ago," she said. "I haven't had time to think it through. But yeah, obviously it will."

"We can't keep going with the experiments the way they are now if I'm going to be helping raise this child," Jonah pointed out. "It was already getting weird trying to hide what's going on between us. But this is kind of impossible to keep under wraps."

"You... you want to stay and raise it with us?" Max asked.

"Yeah, of course."

"That's not an 'of course' conclusion," Kinga said. "That's a serious change of stated position."

"Well, I guess it's more up to you than to me," Jonah said. "If you don't want me to stay--"

"Don't be stupid," she said immediately. "Of course we want you to stay."

"You have to figure co-parenting will be easier with three people than with two," Jonah said. "And it would be irresponsible of me to not provide my offspring with a non-evil perspective on life."

"Possible offspring," Max said, and Jonah smiled.

"Even more important to do it if the baby is biologically inclined toward evil, then."

"Do we want to know whose it is?" Kinga asked. "I can run that DNA analysis in like fifteen minutes after it's been born."

"Is there a pressing need to know?" Jonah asked. "I mean, I don't have any major health problems in my family tree. Bad eyesight, seasonal allergies, that's about as bad as it gets."

"I was genetically engineered so I really have no idea what kind of time bombs there might be lurking in my DNA," Kinga said. "I mean, Max was just straight up cloned and his dad was practically unkillable, but my dad did a lot of gene manipulation to get a daughter."

"You were?" Jonah leaned back to study them both, wide-eyed. "That's... incredible, actually. I had no idea that was even possible that long ago. You never told me that."

"I deliberately didn’t,” Kinga said. “Sometimes my dad came up with really dumb shit, but sometimes he was inspired. He always said I was the best result he ever got from an impossible idea."

"Impossible is right... how old are you? I don’t think you’ve said."

"Thirty," Kinga said. "Max is ten years older than me." Jonah did the mental math and his brows arched.

"Twenty years before the first non-mad-science clone. Wow."

"I used my dad's research as a jumping-off point to create the Boneheads," she said. "Plus some non-human DNA. They didn't turn out perfect. I wanted them to reach maturity quickly, but they just age too fast after that. If we didn't cryofreeze them between episodes, they'd die from old age in about two years."

" _That's_ why you do it?"

"Well, I guess an act of creation is what it takes to break her block on talking professional stuff with you," Max said. "Yeah. As far as the experiments go, Joel was a legend at Gizmonics, and hardly anyone knows the crazy shit Dr. Forrester was pulling 13 stories down, and no one but you knows the crazy shit we've been doing up here."

"You are _way_ smarter than your lame invention exchanges lead me to believe."

"Honestly? I have Max handle most of the invention exchanges."

"Oh come on, don't make me look dumb."

"You're not dumb or I wouldn't put up with you," Kinga said. "But you're not an inventor. Your talents lie elsewhere."

"You are _very_ talented in other ways," Jonah said, squeezing Max's shoulder. "Invention exchanges, not so much."

"I do the best I can," Max said. "But... hey, if you're staying, the two of you can do the science stuff together."

"That could be interesting," Jonah said. "Two Gizmocrats from opposing career paths joining forces..."

"Hold that thought," Kinga said. "I just wanted to tell you both about this, you deserved to know. I need to have some time alone to let it sink in for myself, though."

"Oh, yeah, of course," Jonah said. He stooped to kiss her forehead. "Probably a good idea for all of us to think it through." She gave them both a faint, worried smile and headed toward the bedroom. They watched her go and then Max turned his own worried expression on Jonah. "Is this bad? Because for some inexplicable reason I don't feel bad about it."

"I have no idea," Max said. "I'm just really, really confused right now. Because this shouldn't even be possible, and even in the unlikely event it was possible it shouldn't be _viable_ , and she's-- somehow okay right now but what if she stops being okay?"

"If she stops being okay, we'll get help," Jonah said firmly. "Even if she stays okay, we'll get help. Because one miracle is all I'm willing to risk and I did that three months ago."

"I'm just thinking of all the things she's done in the past few months that were probably a bad idea in light of a baby," Max said. "Like... everything to do with Kingachrome, it's so hazardous. Although mostly the Boneheads handle that. Cosmic radiation, what's that going to do? We were drinking recently, do I have to be worried about fetal alcohol syndrome?"

"Max..."

"And what if--"

"Max!" Jonah shook him by his shoulders gently and Max looked up at him. "Relax. Whatever's happened, there's nothing we can do about it. All we can do is make sure she's safe and healthy now. And you put a lot of effort into doing that anyways."

"I know I do," Max said. "And yet bad things still happen to her."

"That's life, man. Look, I don’t think this is one of the bad things. Sometimes something looks bad at first and turns out to be not so bad. You think something is a mistake and it's not really a mistake at all, you just can't see the good that'll come of it from where you are yet. I mean, I thought answering that distress call was a huge mistake right after it happened. But I'm... I think I'm happy here with the two of you." Jonah's eyes widened as he said for the first time what he'd been thinking for a while, and Max smiled at him.

"Are you really?"

"Yeah. I am. This has been the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me but... love is weird, right?"

"Love is so weird," Max agreed. "I always seem to get blindsided by it. When I realized I was in love with Kinga it was like being slapped in the face. And you..." He shook his head. "It wasn't like being slapped in the face with you. But I still felt like I was doing something I shouldn't when I realized how strong my feelings for you were."

"Because I'm a guy?"

"Not really. More because I thought Kinga was it for me. But you're... so unlike her but still so amazing. I didn't think you'd take it well if I told you how I felt, but you said it first."

"Why not? You're pretty amazing too," Jonah said, and Max shook his head.

"I didn't think she'd take it well when I told her, either."

"What are you so afraid of?" Max gave him an unimpressed look, and Jonah offered him a smile. "Come on. You're wonderful."

"I can't keep up with the two of you," Max said. "On more than a couple levels."

"You don't have to put yourself down, you know," Jonah said, catching Max's hand and squeezing it.

"I'm not trying to be self-deprecating, I'm just being honest. I'm not saying I'm not awesome, I know I'm awesome. I'm just not in the same league as you two."

"Even if that's true, and I'm not saying it is... she and I wouldn’t work without you. You're the heart of this relationship, Max. Don't discount how important your capacity for love is in holding us all together." Max blinked, a look of confusion crossing his face, but before he could say anything Jonah leaned down and kissed him. "You're the reason this all got started," Jonah added softly. "Even if none of us had the slightest idea then that we'd make it to this particular point."

"I mean... I guess that's true," Max said uncertainly.

"Our anniversary is your birthday," Jonah pointed out, and Max laughed.

"Jeez, that is true, isn't it. Okay. I don't know, I just... feel like I can't possibly be responsible for something so astonishingly good."

"Deal with it," Jonah said fondly. "You're fantastic." Max looked down, blushing but also smiling, and Jonah wrapped his arms around him.

"Do you... do you think it'll matter whose baby it is?" Max asked hesitantly.

"Well, I mean, we're both dark eyed, you were dark haired before you went silver, we won't be able to tell just by looking at it when it's little," Jonah said thoughtfully. "I was going to leave it up to Kinga whether to find out or not. It's not really important to me, I'm going to love it whether it’s yours or mine." He paused and leaned back slightly to look down at Max. "Does it matter to you?"

"I don't... I don't _think_ so," Max said. "You know, I thought she didn't want kids at all. But I always thought I'd make a decent father."

"I think you'll be better than decent at it," Jonah said. "I think you'll be great at it."

"I sort of hope it's mine," Max admitted. "Just because... no, it's dumb."

"It's not dumb," Jonah said. "What is it?"

"It is dumb, because we're both genetically questionable, so it's probably a bad idea to combine our DNA. But... man, you don't know how many times I've dreamed about having kids with her. I should probably be hoping it's yours, it'd be a beautiful genius between the two of you."

"Stop putting yourself down, Max," Jonah said, giving him a gentle shake. "You get to want things too, you know. I'd be shocked if you didn't want it to be yours. And if it is yours, it'll be adorable. With any luck, it'll be as smart as its mom and as sweet as its dad." Max bit his lip, and Jonah leaned down to kiss his forehead. "Either way, whatever it turns out to be, it'll be loved like crazy."

"Crazy being the functional word," Max joked, and Jonah smiled at him. "Okay. Yeah. It's-- it doesn't matter what we hope for anyways. It will be what it is. And I'm... jeez, I'm practically lightheaded from shock. This is all so weird."

"Are you going to be okay? I think we all need time to think this through..."

"I'll be fine, it's _her_ I'm worried about," Max said. "I'm going to go check on her. Do you want to stay down here or--?"

"No, I should go back up," Jonah said. "I have to figure out how to break this to the bots."

"Don't say anything yet," Max warned. "Kinga's probably going to want to do something to wrap the show up. Don't tip them off, okay?"

"Can do." They walked over to the chute together, and Jonah stooped to kiss Max one more time before he went. "Take care of her," he said softly.

"That's the entire point of my existence," Max said with a smile. "Of course I will." He sighed when he pulled the lever to send Jonah up, then looked around as he walked through the main chamber and down the hall. God, babyproofing Moon 13 was going to be a total nightmare. He tapped on the door to their bedroom and peeked in to find Kinga staring at the wall. She blinked and looked at him as he came in. "How are you doing?" he asked, hesitating a second before sitting next to but not touching her.

"I think I want to burn a building down," she said blankly.

"That's... not an impulse to follow," Max said, studying her face. She didn't look up from her hands in her lap.

"I need to destroy something to figure out how I feel about creating something. I need to destroy something sizeable to counterbalance creating something significant."

"Okay, but we're still on the moon and you can't burn any of it down." He put his hand on the back of her wrist. "Is that really how you see it?"

"Yeah," Kinga said, glancing at him sidelong. "I've wrecked something before starting all my major projects."

"Buildings?" He could imagine her all too easily setting fires, flames reflected in her eyes and turning her hair the color of fresh blood.

"No. Well, a shed, not a house. That one was for the moon base."

"What'd you do for Kingachrome?"

"Threw a bomb into a lake."

"Wow. Without me? I'm offended."

"It's a personal thing," she said, finally turning to face him to find him half smiling. "Although you have a hand in this. You should destroy something with me."

"I don't think you're going to find something equally satisfying to destroy here as blowing something up or burning something down." He caught her hand and relocated it to his leg. "But maybe taking it out on me will almost live up to the rush?"

"You want me to hurt you?" Her eyes lit up, and he nodded.

"If it'll help you clear your head."

"I'm sure it will," she said, testing her nails on the top of his leg. He shivered.

"It wouldn't be the first time I've been sacrificed to your destructive tendencies."

"Oh, but every time you do it this specifically it's so great," she sighed. "You look amazing by the time I'm done."

"I look like a mess when you're done."

"Yes. Totally defiled." Her voice was pure satisfaction. "I like you ruined. It looks good on you." She squeezed his thigh and gave him a look so possessive it made his heart race.

"I'm yours," he said, covering her hand with his. "You can do what you want with me. But my favorite part of being taken apart by you is the way you pull me back together at the end of it."

"But you like the rest of it," she said, almost a question, and he laughed.

"Yes. I like all of it."

"Good. I'm lucky that you do."

"Lucky nothing... you programmed me to be this way." She arched her brows. "I was always going to love whatever you did to me," he admitted. "And you were never a light touch on me. So of course I like it when you hurt me. I have very strong positive associations with you hurting me after all this time."

"I don't _only_ hurt you..."

"No, I know. And when you do, you do it lovingly. And I _do_ like it. But it's not an accident that I do. You definitely did this to me."

"You don't mind?"

"If I minded, I would have said something a long time ago. No, I don't mind. Like I said, I'm yours to do with what you like. That's always been true." She cupped his cheek and leaned in to kiss him, biting his lower lip until he sighed. "Just tell me how you want me," he said, and she tugged at his collar.

"Much more naked," she said, and he stood up to obey, biting back a smile at the avid look in her eyes as he unbuttoned his jacket and shrugged out of it. "I love you so much," she added, and he couldn't hold back the smile any more.

"I love you more," he said, and she didn't argue, like she never did when he said that. He pulled off his undershirt and she caught him by the back of the neck and tugged him down to be kissed, nails dragging hard over his nape. He shivered and made a breathy sound when she bit his lip again, harder this time. “Mmm… don’t be nice. Take what you need from me.”

“Don’t I always?” She dug her fingers into his hair and gripped it tightly, pulling his head back. “You’re so good for me. You deserve a reward, but you’re not going to get one.”

“This is not a punishment,” he pointed out, and when she let go of him he gave her an almost lovesick look. “You know that by now. Punishment is not touching me. So just… keep touching me.”

“I can do that,” she purred, leaving red lines in the wake of her nails all the way down his chest and belly until she started undoing his pants. “You pick, you want the paddle or the cane?”

“I think Jonah would be horrified by the results of the cane,” Max said. “And I don’t want him to be too horrified to touch me.”

“He’s not _that_ squeamish, is he?”

“You don’t remember how bad the welts were last time. You got overenthusiastic and broke skin, remember?” She squeezed his butt with both hands and then dragged his clothes down his legs.

“Yeah, I remember now. Not often you actually use the safe word.”

“Not often I need it,” he said, stepping out of the puddle of cloth around his feet and leaving him in only a pair of brightly patterned socks. “And you were _very_ sweet about aftercare that night. But I couldn’t sit down for days. And he’s been shocked by some of the marks you’ve left on me before that weren’t half as bad as those.”

“It’s so fucking weird to moderate what I do with you because of him,” she said, settling her hands on his hips and digging her nails in.

“I know you’re used to doing literally whatever you want…”

“No… it’s weird because I don’t mind. I thought I would, I don’t know, resent the interference? But I don’t want him to be unhappy. And I really don’t want to use you to make him unhappy.”

“You love him,” Max said, and she rolled her eyes. “You wouldn’t care if he was unhappy unless you loved him.”

“Maybe I do,” she said.

“You should tell him so.” 

“You won’t be jealous if I tell him in less time than I told you?” Max huffed a laugh and caught her face between his hands, leaning to kiss her.

“I’m not petty like that. I’m happy that you love him. He deserves to hear it.” She raked her nails across his hips, and his lashes fluttered. “Mm.”

“I’ll tell him when it’s time to tell him,” she said. “Right now I’m more focused on you.”

“Yes please.” She paused to look at the claw marks she’d left and nodded with satisfaction. “Where do you want me?”

“On the bed, on your back.” She settled next to him with her legs tucked under her when he did as he was told. “Maybe I don’t need to use anything tonight. We got into this situation with just our bodies, I can work through my creative hangups the same way,” she said, skimming her hand down his side.

“Well, aren’t you going to take your clothes off then?”

“No. That’s not the point of this.”

“No?” She shook her head and he tried not to pout. “If you say so…”

“Trust me, Max. I have at least half an idea of what I’m doing.”

“I’ve seen you make a quarter of an idea work,” he said, looking up at her with a smile. “I’m not here to second guess you. I just like when you’re naked.”

“That would just distract me from my purpose.”

“Oh really? You hurt me pretty effectively with no clothes on too.” She pinched him hard just above the scratches she left on his hip, and he jolted. “What? I’m just saying.”

“This isn’t about sex,” she said sternly, and he had to bite back a smile.

“We got into this situation with sex, maybe you can work through it the same way.”

“Don’t use my own words against me or I’ll get out the gag.”

“That’s not helping your argument that this isn’t about sex.”

“Max…” There was an edge to her voice. He held up his hands in a clear sign of conceding to her, and she sighed and leaned down to kiss him. “Anything else you want to say?”

“I’ll behave,” he said. “This is for you. However you want it to go. Whatever you need.” She kissed him again and cupped his cheek.

“I need to make you cry.”

“Then we have a long night ahead of us. Better get started.” He closed his eyes as she bit the side of his neck, sighing happily. She knew better than anyone how much it took to make him cry. He hoped it would be enough to satisfy whatever strange sense of balance she needed to achieve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I HAVE BEEN SITTING ON THIS PLOT TWIST SINCE FUCKING JULY YOU GUYS. And let me tell you, what I have here is a far cry from the original incarnation of this thought, but I'm really happy with how it evolved since I made the original note in my "running plot point collection" note. Like, as soon as I saw [these pictures](https://twitter.com/feliciaday/status/888845538426200064) I was like "ah for fuck's sake now I HAVE to give her a baby." I don't even like babies. Pregnancy is horrifying to me. but fucking look at those pictures what was I supposed to do? I'm so weak. Anyways... Kinga is not done turning her guys' lives upside-down just yet.


	2. The Time is Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kinga takes action to get what she wants in the order she intended. The boys are very helpful and obliging.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jesus these kids can go on tangents. Holy fuck they talk a lot. And, you know, plot plot plot for ~~world domination~~ a small and relatively bloodless coup. (Only relatively.)

"Max?" 

"Mmhm?" He'd been in that barely-awake dozing phase, but when Kinga touched his shoulder he blinked and turned to look at her. "Morning." He was sore all over from the things she'd done to him the night before, skin marked everywhere with scratches and bruises and bites, but he ached in a perfectly satisfied way. Her insistence that it hadn't been about sex hadn't lasted the whole night, much to his relief. Her gaze dropped to the marks littering his chest, and then she met his eyes, looking serious.

"Remember when you told me I couldn't kill the president?" Oh, it was going to be _that_ kind of a morning. He rubbed his eyes and sat up slightly.

"Uh... it rings a bell, why?"

"You said it wasn't the time."

"Okay, I remember saying that."

"I think it's time," she said. She lifted her phone to show him the news article she'd been reading. **Trump taunts Kim Jong-Un on Twitter.**. "It's going to get out of hand soon. Whatever I'm doing, I need to do it now."

"But... what _are_ you doing?"

"We're going to figure that out."

"Please tell me that 'we' includes Jonah."

"Well, yeah, obviously... I think between the three of us we can figure something out that's mad but not gratuitously cruel."

"I agree," Max said, and he leaned up to kiss her. "I'm looking forward to collaborating with him, it'll be nice to not be the only mitigating influence on your madness."

"That doesn't mean you get to slack off," she told him with a smile. "This is going to make or break my career. Whatever plan we come up with, it needs to work."

"You go get him, I'll start making breakfast, and we can brainstorm over pancakes and triceratops bacon," Max suggested. "Between the three of us I think we're smarter than the entire administration. We'll come up with something." 

He'd made a heap of pancakes already by the time Kinga and Jonah came into the kitchen. Jonah breathed in and exhaled a happy sigh. "To what do I owe the honor of this breakfast date?" he asked cheerfully.

"It's not a breakfast date," Kinga said, making a beeline for the coffee pot. "It's a day-long plan-a-coup-of-a-world-power date. Hope that's okay."

"After the news lately? It's time. I've actually had a few thoughts about this..."

"We've all been thinking about it," Max said dryly, "at varying levels of bloodthirstiness." He flipped the bacon, then turned to smile at Jonah. "But it's a good thing we have a protagonist in the mix now, because I have to admit that even I'm unusually bloodthirsty with this one."

"We probably shouldn't kill a lot of people, but we have to kill at least one and maybe a few," Jonah said. "To make a point." He poured himself a cup of coffee and doctored it up before bringing it to the table and sitting down, long legs stretched out.

"Oh, jeez... I knew you were rubbing off on her but I didn't realize she was rubbing off on you too," Max said, and Kinga rolled her eyes.

"Please, this just proves he's sane. I was thinking about wiping out the chain of command all the way down through the Cabinet. One or a few sounds very reasonable next to that. But a bit toothless, don't you think?"

"We _could_ just kidnap them," Max suggested. "Threaten to lock them in with the dinosaurs, then... I don't know, cryofreeze them?"

"I don't want to keep incompetent politician popsicles. I'd rather just throw them out the airlock." She glanced at Jonah to find him shaking his head.

"I refuse to let you litter on the Moon like that," Jonah said. "Even if it is on the side that never gets seen from Earth. If you can't be a good steward of a lifeless satellite you probably shouldn't take over a country with hundreds of millions of people."

"It wasn't an actual actionable suggestion," Kinga said, rolling her eyes. "I'm just saying I don't want to clutter up Moon 13 with frozen useless old people even if it might not be my base of operations any more."

"Definitely not the type of hoarding you want to start doing," Max agreed. "Okay, so what will we do with the people we need to remove?"

"Are we really sure I can't just kill them? I'd prefer to do that."

"Minimal amounts of murder," Jonah said.

"Technically it would be assassination."

"That's still murder. Anyways, what you seem to be planning is execution, not assassination," Max chimed in as he carried breakfast over to the table. "Although they're both to be expected if we're staging a coup, honestly."

"Thank you, see? Some people have to die."

"I know that," Jonah said, liberating a piece of bacon and making an indecent sound when he bit into it. "Mm. I'm just trying to guide the very vague 'some' into a more definite 'few' instead of a still vague 'many'." He finished the slice of bacon and sucked his fingers clean, then pointed at Kinga. "Are you more bloodthirsty because you're pregnant? You've been acting strange lately but not evil strange, just strange."

"I might not be so ready to move on this right now if I weren't uncomfortably hormonal," she said thoughtfully as she soaked her pancakes in maple syrup. "But now that I know why I feel this way, I want my kid to have a world to grow up in that isn't ravaged by nuclear war or demolished by climate change, you know?"

"I think everyone wants that," Max said, and she arched her brows. "We could just kill the people who've been forcing the country down that path. Oooh, can we seize everything the Koch brothers own? Just completely ruin them?"

"But not kill them?"

"No, they should suffer. There's evil and then there's depravity and they've been depraved for far too long."

"Yeah, but how would we pull that off?" Jonah asked. "I mean, practically speaking."

"I know someone who might help," Kinga said, looking down into her coffee cup before taking a sip. "She... mm. She doesn't owe me a favor exactly, but we like to help each other out when we can."

"Is this the same one you called when we were at Gizmonics?" Max asked, and she smiled. "Your ex?"

"That's who I'm thinking of, yes." Jonah arched a brow, and she pursed her lips at him. "What?"

"I thought you said Max was your one and only."

"I'm talking about my high school girlfriend," she said, rolling her eyes. "It was as much alliance as romance. And boarding school isn't the easiest place to get laid, you know."

"I wouldn't have thought it'd be that difficult..."

"You've never lived in an all female social setting," she pointed out, and he shrugged. "Anyways, she's a revolutionary. I can't imagine she wouldn't be down for overthrowing a corrupt and harmful government. Especially a homophobic and woman-hating one." She turned her focus back to her pancakes. "I'll call her after breakfast."

Calling Earth was a pain in the ass from the dark side of the moon, and since coming up to Moon 13 Kinga had called Root about every eighteen months for a two-minute check-in conversation, but had only heard from Root twice, once to arrange an upload to her petabyte servers that took several days to complete and once, not long after that, to retrieve what she’d sent, at which point Root had told her that if she failed to reach Root the next time she called down that she would be better off staying on the moon indefinitely. 

Kinga kept her fingers crossed while the phone rang, breathing a sigh of relief at the velvet purr of, “Hello, sweetie.”

“It’s good to hear your voice,” Kinga said. “I’m guessing the world isn’t a total loss, then?”

“The good guys won,” Root said. “It’s kind of weird being one of the good guys.”

“Weird good or weird bad?”

“I’m in love,” Root said, and Kinga laughed.

“That’s not an answer.”

“Saving the world with the person you love is the best kind of weird good.”

“I’m hoping to get a taste of that myself.”

“Don’t tell me you’re finally expanding your empire back to Earth.”

“The United States needs an intervention.”

“I agree. This administration is the result of bad code in the system. It’s proven difficult to fix through subtle means.”

“What would the nation look like if it were redesigned by a higher power?”

“Depends on the higher power...”

“You said you found your god in the machine, how benevolent is it?”

“Endlessly,” Root said, and Kinga could hear the smile in her voice. “Don’t you have some ideas?”

“Most of my ideas are vindictive,” Kinga said. “Can’t stage a coup without some assassinations, can’t fund a new government without seizing some billionaires’ assets and ruining them permanently...”

“Mm, I’d love to help.”

“I can’t build a new government from the ground up. But I’m pretty sure your benevolent higher power could do a better job than I could anyways. Imagine actual equality written into law... rewriting the entire political structure into something fair, taking money out of it... universal health care, universal basic income, let’s just completely obliterate poverty and homelessness with the billions we seize.”

“Putting the welfare of the people as the highest priority rather than an afterthought,” Root said. “Yes, I’m pretty sure She’d be willing to help with that.”

“I’m not a politician,” Kinga said, in the understatement of the day. “I don’t like politics. But if a not-quite-bloodless coup by a mad scientist can fix some shit, and I think it can, then now’s the time for me to do it. I’m not the worst option by a long shot any more.”

“Give me one day,” Root said. “I’ll call you back in 24 hours. How fast do you want to move on this?”

“What day is today?”

“Tuesday.”

“It’d be fitting to have this done by Friday afternoon, don’t you think? As much bad news as they try to sneak in at 5pm on Fridays...”

“Drama queen,” Root said fondly. “Yeah, I’ll contact you tomorrow at noon.”

“That’s not long.”

“You’re not the only one with an omnipotent friend any more, sweetie.”

“Root?”

“Mmhm?”

“Half our lives ago we were planning on taking the world by force.”

“Most people never live their dreams.”

“Are these the same dreams?”

“Close enough for government work,” Root laughed. “They’re better than the dreams we had back then. We’re better people than we thought we’d turn out to be.”

“I never thought I would care whether what I wanted to do was the right thing to do,” Kinga admitted softly.

“Me neither. But you have no idea what you open yourself up to when you decide to care about it.”

“I’m about to find out.”

“Here’s hoping it’s for the best for you. Noon tomorrow, okay? I may need to access my servers at the same time.”

“Whatever you need, of course. Just let me know.” Kinga couldn’t help wondering about the person Root had fallen in love with as she went to rejoin her co-conspirators. Whoever she was, she had to be something else. Then again, both of the men who’d captured her own heart were something else, too. Max was a treasure, the most precious gift that she hadn’t fully appreciated for far too long, and Jonah was a bona fide hero, so good and true that she still wasn’t convinced that she deserved him. But somehow, the three of them worked. She pressed a palm to her belly and reminded herself that the three of them would keep working, not just for the sake of their love but for the sake of the life taking shape inside her. 

When she came back into the room to find the table cleared and Max and Jonah hard at work, both men looked up at her and smiled, and Kinga almost staggered from the realization that she always wanted this moment to be true, this moment of recognizing their pleasure at her presence, the feeling of security she had with them both looking at her like this. She needed this, and she realized all at once as she rejoined them at the table that there was something she could do to make sure she could keep having it.

“How’d the call go?” Max asked, and she smiled at him and sat between them.

“She’ll help. She’s going to call me back tomorrow.”

“And what can she do?” Jonah asked. “I don’t know this person.”

“She’s the one who funded this whole moon base,” Max said. “She’s some genius hacker mercenary.”

“She’s not a mercenary any more,” Kinga said. “She found religion.”

“...that’s usually not a good sign,” Jonah said hesitantly.

“Not a standard religion.”

“Still sketchy.”

“I trust her,” Kinga said, “and I trust her to do the right thing now, which is a whole different thing from how I trusted her before.”

“Given the kind of resources she had at her disposal six years ago, I’m going to say that her help will be necessary if we want to pull this off,” Max said, and Jonah shrugged and accepted both their statements. Max slid a tablet across the table to Kinga. “Now, I came up with a list of about a hundred people we need to figure out what to do with... let’s decide who lives and who dies.”

By the time they took a lunch break in the afternoon, Jonah had come to the realization that both of his lovers were out for blood in a big way. He expected nothing less from Kinga, but it was a shock from Max, who was usually reluctant to do any kind of harm. “This is uncharacteristic for you,” he said after the eleventh politician in a row Max had voted to kill, and Max shrugged.

“You haven’t known me all that long, really,” he said. “You should have seen me in college.”

“ _I_ didn’t even see you in college,” Kinga said. “Why, what did you do in college? I thought you were an emo radio kid.”

“I may have gone to a lot of protests,” Max said. “I may or may not have been involved in a riot that I may or may not have had a part in instigating.”

“And you didn’t tell me about it? Max, I’m disappointed.” Kinga pouted at him, and he shrugged.

“Anti-capitalist protests in the Bush era didn’t seem like something you’d be interested in. But I’m pretty sure you’ve stolen my ‘Eat the Rich’ t-shirt at least once a year since you found me.”

“I thought it was a band shirt. I guess we’ve both been keeping destructive secrets,” she said. “What about you, Jonah? Secretly a communist?”

“More of a socialist,” Jonah said. “I’m actually a utilitarian. I’m in favor of the greatest good for the greatest number of people.”

“Dangerous territory,” Kinga said with a smirk. “Very slippery slope.”

“Only if you have no inherent sense of morality,” Jonah said. “So probably not the best ethical system for you, but it works for me.”

“Ouch, but fair.” She reached across the table and covered his hand with hers, smiling at him. “That’s what we need you here for. You’re providing the ethics of this coup.”

“Those are big shoes to fill,” Jonah said.

“You wear big shoes already,” Max pointed out. “And if the shoe fits...”

“I guess I’m really the only person who can wear it,” Jonah said, smiling. “It’s a hard job but someone’s got to do it.”

“You’re up to the task,” Kinga said confidently. “Max’s ethics mostly work on the macro level but break down when you get to individual politicians. So you have to keep us within a reasonable level of mayhem that far down.”

“What about the macro levels, though?” Jonah asked. “What about the military, the police, what about the significant numbers of armed people that will be pissed off you’ve taken Trump out?”

“I may have already discussed this part of my plan with Brain Guy,” Kinga said.

“When? We haven’t seen him since our first season.”

“Oh, _way_ before then. This conversation happened on Earth. I asked him if he was omnipotent enough to collect every gun to one place. I mean, I did specify Earth and not the USA, but he should be able to scale it down if he can do it globally, right?”

“He can do that?” Max asked, eyes wide. “Then why hasn’t he done it already?”

“Observers only change things that much out of personal spite,” she said. “But the reason Grandma and him and Bobo have been out in space lately is because they ditched the planet when Trump came to power. I think he’s spiteful enough.”

“So how do we get in touch with him?”

“Interstellar Snapchat,” Kinga said.

“That’s a joke, right?” Kinga tapped at her tablet for a minute and then held up a snap of Brain Guy and Pearl splitting a fishtank-sized flaming drink. “That’s not a joke,” Jonah said. “Okay then.”

“At least he looks like he’s having fun,” Max said. “When did he get this?”

“Oh, they only established the interstellar protocols a couple months ago. Depending on how far out they are, this could be significantly delayed.”

“Well then, you should message him now, just in case,” Max said.

“Already on it,” she said, tapping away. “Ha, Grandma will be so mad if he helps me out like this. Maybe she’ll be proud of me though...” She stopped still for a second, looking vulnerable, then shook her head sharply. “I don’t need her to be proud of me,” she added fiercely. “I’m not doing this for her approval.”

“You’re doing it for yourself,” Max said, and she looked over at him.

“I’m doing it for all of us,” she said, one hand pressing to her stomach. “But mostly for the baby.”

“You’re really taking this seriously,” Jonah said, and she gave him an incredulous look.

“Uh, _yeah_? It’s pretty serious.”

“No, I mean... you found out yesterday and not even twenty-four hours later you’re planning a coup to save the world for our child. That’s terrifyingly efficient of you.”

“This is my destiny,” she said. “My father was supposed to give me the world and he didn’t. Now it’s my turn to take the world to give it to my child, and I’m not going to fail like he did.” Max reached for her other hand and squeezed it.

“My destiny’s always been intertwined with yours,” he said. “And this is always what you’ve wanted. This is just a better reason to act now.”

“Guys...” They both looked at Jonah, who took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes before putting them back on. “If this is the end of the experiment, what happens to the bots?”

“Oh, they can go home,” Kinga said. “Ever since the show went up on Netflix I’ve been getting letters from Mike and Joel begging me to let them come home. They’ll probably be instant celebrities after I take over. Let them regale the media with my evilness and I’ll have less work to do keeping people in the proper amount of fear and awe.”

“I don’t think that’ll go the way you want it to go,” Jonah said dryly. “But I agree that they should go home. ConGypsCo’s been doing great on the stock market while the CEO’s been on satellite sabbatical, and I think Crow’s got a shot at making it in the film industry now that it’s being all shaken up, given that the only person he’s ever sexually harassed is Tom.”

“That’s... unnerving,” Kinga said.

“Did you know they got married and never annulled it?” Max asked. “I found the documents in a box of my dad’s stuff. Apparently the wedding was a disaster but the paperwork was legal.”

“So was it sexual harassment or harmless spousal banter?” Kinga asked. 

“I mean, you can sexually harass your own spouse,” Jonah said thoughtfully, “But from Tom’s reaction he didn’t seem to mind.”

“Married gay robot screenwriter? He’ll take Hollywood by storm,” Max said. “A safe, unproblematic fave for all ages.”

“I’m not so sure about _that_ ,” Jonah said. “But most ages, sure.”

“Great. You can let them know when you go back up,” Kinga said. “We’re not going to have time to wrap the show up. We’ve got most of a season’s worth of episodes, anyways...”

“Maybe we could do a finale with all of us in the theater,” Max said. “Or a theater, anyways. Obviously not the one on the Satellite.”

“You couldn’t handle it,” Jonah said fondly. “You don’t have the riff chops.”

“Excuse you,” Max said, one hand pressed to his chest in offense. “Who do you think made fun of the movies when we were finding the crap we sent you?”

“Even though I told you not to,” Kinga sighed, and Max made a face at her. 

“You laughed anyways, admit it.”

“Yeah, fine, you’re moderately funny,” she said, and he rolled his eyes. “You’re a laugh riot, okay? You should do stand-up.”

“Yeah right, can you imagine _me_ doing stand-up?” 

“Yes,” Jonah said. “Easily. I’d think that being a mad scientist’s sidekick has given you tons of original material.” Max blinked at him, and Jonah smiled. “I don’t know if you’d like it, but you could definitely do it.”

“Thanks,” Max said, a little startled. “I... really haven’t considered alternate job paths. This is almost all I’ve ever wanted to do.”

“You’ve worked in restaurants,” Kinga pointed out, and Max shrugged. “Obviously that was just a job and not an occupation, but still...”

“I was just killing time until you came back for me,” he said. “I’m not saying I wasn’t good at it, but it was never what I was meant to be doing.”

“This is what you were meant to be doing,” Kinga said, gesturing at the table in front of them. “Taking over the world with me.”

“The United States isn’t the world,” Jonah said, and she rolled her eyes.

“It’s the part of the world that needs the most help I can reasonably give right now,” she said, and he conceded that with a nod. “We should get back to work.”

“We didn’t decide what to do with McConnell,” Jonah said.

“Kill him,” Max and Kinga chorused, and Jonah sighed and nodded. 

“Okay then. I can’t really disagree.” He put a checkmark in the box and scrolled down. “Rick Perry? Oh, no, we definitely have to kill him.” He had to remember that he was the ethical one here... but goddamn, some people just really deserved to die.

It was almost nine p.m. by the time Kinga put down her tablet, looked from Jonah to Max and back again, and smiled a small but genuine smile. "I think this is going to work," she said.

"It's not airtight, but we're going up against some very stupid and proud people so I think it's probably going to succeed," Jonah said. She stood up and stretched until her back popped, then turned around with a sigh and held out a hand to each of them.

"Group hug?" Max asked as she pulled them to their feet.

"One moment," she said, studying first his face and then Jonah's before nodding to herself and squeezing their hands. "So... when this works..." When, not if. Perfect confidence looked good on her. "I think we should get married." Max and Jonah glanced at each other, and Max slipped his free hand into Jonah's.

"I'm on board," he said. 

"You mean marry both of us?" Jonah asked, and she rolled her eyes.

"If I only meant one of you I'd only have asked one of you. Yeah. If I overthrow a country that means I can change the laws. Why shouldn't I marry you both? I mean, we _are_ planning to raise a kid together... We all love each other, don't we?" Jonah arched a brow.

"You love me? This is the first you've bothered mentioning it."

"Of course I love you, how could I not?" Laughing, he stooped to kiss her, and she scratched her nails against his scruffy cheek gently. "Yes, I love you. But... would you be willing to take my name?"

"Is it a dealbreaker?" She nodded, looking resolute, and he tilted his head slightly. "Jonah Forrester," he said thoughtfully. "I could... probably get used to that."

"It has a ring to it," Max said. "I can't even pretend I haven't practiced signing Max Forrester already."

"I figure that two levelheaded husbands balancing out one hotheaded ruler should probably be a more stable system than one idiot ordering around a few hundred idiots."

"You mean I'm not just going to be a trophy husband?" Jonah said teasingly, and she pursed her lips at him.

"Please. If we're getting into this mess together, we have to clean it up together."

"You know, when you told me decades ago that I'd help you run the world when you took it over, this is not the role I envisioned for myself back then," Max said. "I had no idea what I'd be getting into, but I'm glad that reality exceeded my dreams."

"You think _you_ didn't know what you were getting into," Jonah said incredulously. "My entire association with the two of you has been a series of me not knowing what I'm getting into until it's too late."

"Too late for what?" Kinga asked. He smiled slightly and pulled them both into his arms.

"At first it was too late to escape. Now... too late to think about leaving."

"Do you still want to leave at some point?" Max's question came very, very quietly. Jonah shook his head.

"I think you've gotten me to peak Stockholm if I'm planning to overthrow the government with you," he said. "But no, absolutely I do not want to leave the two of you once we're all back on Earth. Our kid's going to need all hands on deck in a few months, after all. And I can't imagine it'll be any easier for Kinga to rule as the pregnancy goes on. You'll all need me too much for me to take off."

"True," Kinga said, reaching up to touch his cheek. "You're necessary."

"I thought you didn't want that to be true," he said, and she shrugged.

"You don't want to leave any more. If you're staying, my feelings for you aren't a liability. As long as you weren't planning to stay, the more I needed you the worse off I'd be when you took off." 

"I changed my mind about leaving yesterday... I thought that was obvious. But if you want to put a ring on it to make it official, then you've got me for as long as you want me, I guess."

"She doesn't let go," Max said. "She doesn't know how to."

"As if she'd ever let go of _you_ ," Jonah said, one brow arched. "I don't think your experience is so easily generalized in this case."

"No, he's right," Kinga said, reaching for Jonah's hand and lacing her fingers through his, her hand so small in his. "I don't let go. Unless something is wrenched out of my grasp, I hold on to what's mine. And you're mine now. Which... you didn't want me to think."

"I'm okay with it now," Jonah allowed. "Things have changed since I said that." He shook his head. "Who knew four months would change everything?"

"Four months... or fifteen since you fell into our clutches," Kinga said.

"Or six years since the first time you were nice to her," Max added, and Jonah’s eyes widened.

"Six years ago none of us could have predicted any of this."

"What's the weirdest part?" Kinga asked. He blinked at her, then smiled slightly.

"Working with supervillains. This is not a proper application of the degree I almost earned."

“Isn’t it, though? We’re plotting how to save the world. If that’s not protagonist-worthy then what is?” Max asked.

“I’m pretty sure that staging a coup is not a protagonist thing to do.”

“Mitigating the amount of death we deal in the process is _totally_ a protagonist thing to do,” Kinga pointed out. “You’re the moral compass here.”

“Wasn’t Max your moral compass?” Jonah asked, and Max snorted.

“You’re better at it.”

“Oh, come on.”

“I obviously can’t be the moral compass this time,” Max said. “Because I have no reservations about rounding up every white supremacist and sexual abuser and climate denier sucking dirty lobbyist funds and throwing them all into the bottom of the Mariana Trench, and they’re all over this administration. I told you I was too bloodthirsty on this one.”

“I didn’t realize you felt so strongly about it,” Jonah said, and Max shrugged.

“I might be a supervillain but I’m also anti-fascist, pro-consent, and pro-environment,” he said. “If I wasn’t on the moon I’d be going to rallies. Kinda wish I could have brought a few of Kinga’s inventions to the fascist demonstrations, honestly.”

“Direct action,” Jonah said with a laugh, and Max shrugged widely.

“Pretty sure that literally overthrowing the government is the most direct of direct action,” he said. “I’ll take a mostly benevolent dictator over what we’ve got now.”

“You’d better,” Kinga said. “Given that you’re helping to install her. I’m not even coming up with the policies for the most part, I’m leaving that all up to Root’s friend. I just want to be a figurehead, I don’t want to do any actual governing.”

“I seem to faintly recall me predicting that you’d stick me with the bullshit governing part of the job,” Max said, and she laughed.

“I was planning on sticking you with the childcare, actually,” she said.

“I’d rather deal with the baby, honestly.”

“I know you would, that’s why I said it.” She got a slightly dopey grin as she stared at him. “You’re going to be such a cute dad, I know it.”

“He totally is,” Jonah said. “I’m going to have to put effort in to be as cute as he’s going to be naturally.”

“I mean, I’m already exceptionally cute,” Max said, rolling his eyes ironically, but he found himself squished between Kinga and Jonah with both of his cheeks being kissed.

“Yes, you are,” Jonah said. “You are very, very cute.”

“What’s the metric? Cute, hot, and sexy?” Kinga pointed at Max. “You’re cute.” To herself. “I’m hot.” Then to Jonah. “And you’re sexy.”

“I am?” Jonah asked, brows arched.

“ _Yes_ ,” Max said immediately. “You are.”

“Are you sure? I’m just a big nerd,” Jonah said playfully, “That’s not really considered sexy.”

“Okay but...” Kinga pushed his glasses up his nose. “Your bedroom eyes are unreal.” She ran a hand through his hair. “The permanent bedhead immediately brings to mind thoughts of you in bed.” She tapped his lips with one fingertip. “And your mouth should be illegal.” He kissed her fingertip, and she grinned. “Case in point.”

“He’s fishing for compliments,” Max said. “He knows he’s sexy. I have extensively listed the reasons he’s sexy before.” He got up from his chair and came up behind Jonah, wrapping his arms around broad shoulders and kissing the back of his neck. “And I’ll do it again, and again, and again, because it’s always going to be true.” Jonah laughed and tilted his head to one side when Max’s lips found the ticklish spot on the side of his neck.

“You don’t have to,” he said. “But I’m not going to stop you if you want to do it again.”

“I will gladly do it again if you’re naked while I do it,” Max said hopefully, “because we have had a very long day and I’ve been thinking about the two of you naked for the last four hours.”

“Only four? Slacker,” Kinga said. “It’s been lowkey on my mind since we sat down for breakfast.”

“What are we waiting for then?” Jonah asked, standing up and toying with the top button of his jumpsuit fliratiously. “All you had to do was say the word, you know.”

“Fuck, I love you,” Kinga said, grabbing both of them by the hand and pulling them toward the bedroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey I'm still maintaining those character tumblrs!
> 
> http://thirdgenerationsupervillain.tumblr.com  
> http://squishysecondbanana.tumblr.com  
> http://flyboygizmocrat.tumblr.com


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